Five documentaries to watch during LGBT History Month

October is LGBT History Month, which means it’s a great excuse to celebrate all of the queer women who came before you. Like you could watch tonight’s episode of The Playboy Club to see Colbie Callait play Lesley Gore, the ’60s pop star who came out as a lesbian years later.

So if you’re now saying “Wow, lesbians existed in the ’60s!?” you should watch some of these documentaries of people starring as themselves. Here are films you can track down to revel in your LGBT herstory this month (and forever after).

If you want a love story that’s also highly political:

This film is not only the story of Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon‘s partnership, but their struggles for homosexuality to be taken out of the psychiatric books as a mental disorder, staring the first ever lesbian magazine and other political endeavors that have been so pivotal to LGBT equality.

If you want a history lesson:

These films highlight the LGBT history in America both before and after the 1969 riots that spawned Gay Pride Festivals. So many important people are interviewed, events covered and background given on how we have achieved everything we have today. (For more on Stonewall itself, check out Stonewall Uprising and read our article on Stonewall veteran Stormé DeLarverie.)

If you’re a cinephile

Out filmmakers and actors (including Jane Lynch, Donna Deitch and Rose Troche) discuss the trials of getting movies about gay people made. It’s an excellent look at the journey from subtext to actual queer themes in cinematic history, which echoed the decades they were a part of and much of what was happening with our community at that time.

You can find these films on Netflix or at Wolfe Video. What films would you add to the list?